University Twitter campaign aims to make nursing more appealing to men

Posted 25 March 2019 - 11:51

Glasgow Caledonian University wants to redress gender imbalance among nursing students

Glasgow Caledonian University wants to redress gender imbalance among nursing students

The @GCUMenRnurses2 campaign Twitter page.

University staff have started a Twitter campaign to attract more male nursing undergraduates.

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) staff came up with the idea of the @GCUMenRnurses2 social media campaign to appeal to a younger audience. Nursing lecturer Stevie Morrison said they wanted to reach as many young people as possible to break down nurse stereotypes.

Taking the message to schoolchildren

‘Our plan is to take our message out to schools,’ he said. ‘It’s vitally important to get that message to children as young as possible.’

GCU said 8% of its 1,844 nursing students are men, with a 1.4% increase this year. This is line with a general increase in male nursing students in Scotland in 2019.

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data revealed an11%increase in male applicants to nursing degrees in Scotland to 410 this year, up from 370 last year. But this is still well below the number of female applicants – 4,840 women applied to study nursing in Scotland in 2019.